Piney Grove Methodist Church

06/17/2026

06/15/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

Today was the conclusion of our "Revival follow-up" sermon series. It was also a Sunday where I had the privilege of welcoming the new pastor, representing our Global Methodist district, over at Mt. Vernon Global Methodist church and Sapling Ridge Methodist church, Jadon Olsen and his lovely wife Kelsey.

I didn't like coming to my church late but it was important to welcome Jadon and I really didn't want to take the Sunday off. I had a message to preach, and even though I personally felt I had preached better other Sundays, this was the message the Lord had laid on my heart (which intriguingly was confirmed later Sunday night in a wonderful way).

The message was on "Rest". Previously, I have preached on Hope, Humility, Heart and now Rest.

The text was Hebrews 3:12-14 and 4:1-3. It is a famous text about "rest" and usually it is preached in the context of Heaven, our goal. But not today. The message centered on how rare inner peace and rest with God, yourself and your neighbor actually is.
In the hugely successful podcast "Diary of a CEO", the host commented on the phenomena that Christians on his show also display a peace and contentment that he doesn't find elsewhere. That will speak to a culture mired in anxiety and stress.

Hebrews tells us that if we add faith to our knowledge of Jesus, we will have a share in Him and that He becomes our rest.
Secondly, and very importantly, we must encourage one another in this faith so that we don't fall into unbelief of sin, deceitful as those things are.

Are you good at encouraging people in their faith walk?
Can you remember the last time you did that?

The goal, at least one of the goals, of any church is to become such a place that anyone can feel that they can rest in the encouragement and support of the people there. How blessed we are to be such a church and how wonderful it is to be encouraged to stay in Jesus and how spectacular His rest is.

I pray you can rest in Him this week.
pastor Andreas

PS. Don't forget to pray for VBS and, if you are not a child, come for the 7pm Bible study. Tomorrow we are studying the short but powerful letter of 3 John.

06/14/2026

At Rest

06/08/2026

So, this is new.

Pastor Andreas has launched a podcast that is called "Holy Discontent". You can access it from the church's website, along with two other podcasts on holiness in the GMC. Holy Discontent is in the format of a conversation between me (Andreas) and a guest where we talk about the life in and with Jesus and how it connects with our daily life here and now.

The first guest is Duncan Thompson, a minister, a teacher and a good friend of Andreas', who lives in Denmark with his wife and three children. He comes from Birmingham, England.

The conversation is about 45 minutes long and the topic is "My very real and literal experience(-s) with Jesus" and centers around Duncan's unusual but wonderful encounter with Jesus 4 years ago and how Jesus is still there with Him in his daily life.

Take a look/listen! You won't regret it.

https://www.pgsilercitync.org/pastors-podcast

06/08/2026

Pastor's hindsight - what exactly happened?

This Sunday was "nothing special", as far as the church calendar says. It wasn't Pentecost, Trinity Sunday or any other special day...and yet it felt like a special Sunday.

The church was full, Sunday school classes had over 40 people, the children's time in the worship service saw the children love on the congregation by surrounding them and praying for them.

The sermon was the third sermon in our "Revival follow-up" series, this time focusing on the "Heart", specifically on Jesus' command to love one another like Christ loved us.
Can the people around us tell whether we are or not?
Do we know how to love like Jesus did?
Can we actually do it in our own strength?

Scripture gives us many examples of how Jesus loved us. I zeroed in on 3.
His incredible patience.
His love for the unloveable (us).
Him coming down to Earth and taking the form of a servant, not considering Himself higher than us.

These 3, and many others, should be the signs of our love for one another. It they aren't, we have failed.

As it were, failing to love like this is a 100% guarantee since we are human and not divine.
Thus, Romans 5 tells us that we can get this love from God poured into our hearts, by the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is ask.

On a personal note, Laurie and I would like to extend a heartfelt "thanks" to everybody who prepared and came for David's graduation celebration luncheon after church. It felt very special and loving to have our church family support David in this way.

I pray that you are encouraged by Jesus and in some measure filled with His love this week.
/pastor Andreas

06/07/2026

.Revival